How Much Do I Owe You?

Good Friday morning to you. Again, thank you for being a faithful reader. This week has been a great week for me; the topics have inspired me to push farther than I have been going, to do more to work to be better. As with most of the themes I have come up with, it usually is something I was thinking about a week or two before it was put to the test for a theme. And then, as I write on the theme, the stories bring back memories of the way I did things.

When I was a young adult I wanted to get into auto mechanics. If you grew up with me as a teen you would have heard my father tell how I – his son – did not have the analytical thinking needed to be a mechanic. That pushed me to learn and learn. I would always head to someone’s house to help them fix a car, repair a trailer, put brakes on a truck. I wanted to learn. And as I learned, many times I would show up and help put the final touches on repair work that had been driving a friend crazy trying to figure out. I would often spend five minutes to fix something they had spent an entire weekend trying to figure out. Afterwards, I would always get this last affirmation that I was doing good. I was always asked “How much do I owe you?”

So many times we use a talent we have to help people solve a problem. In life we each have different talents, we each have learned at different levels. The joy for those we help is we got them past something that has held them, or trapped their thinking for hours, days, or even weeks.  It is with our last-minute help that we put a part of the puzzle that is so easy for us into place for them.

Now imagine your year. You have spent the past 11 months working on reaching goals in your life and you may still feel you have come up short. For you, maybe this year was like a 5000-piece jigsaw puzzle. You have been working on this picture of a city skyline. All the lighted buildings are together, the edges are done, but you just can’t seem to get that sky together. Then I walk in and connect the center of the sky to the top of the puzzle. You are in awe and you say how much do I owe you for that?

As a life coach, we work with you to solve the puzzle of your life. We help you arrange it and maybe give you a hint where a piece goes. Then we come back to see you a week later and you have the section done. Before you could not separate one area from another. One section at a time, we work with you to build a great picture out of your life.

So let me end out this post and a week with some good questions to get you to think about your life and solve the puzzle you have unfinished with your year.

What is the picture you are trying to build in your life now?  If you look at what you are going through and what sections you are dealing with, it helps to see how we can help. Many times when I start with a new client, they come with all the parts to the puzzle; they have the edges – the easy part – done and they have the box to show how life will look. But they have so many things they are trying to do at once and they can’t figure out how to organize the rest of the pieces. I work to sort out what needs to be done and the first two months typically have great growth, because they see fast results and the picture starts to come to focus.

What are some other puzzles you want to tackle? In life many want to do so many other things but they have so much weight on their shoulders with the current puzzle and they can’t find the connection between the top and bottom. In coaching we help you solve one puzzle at a time to get you to build a room full of art with your life.

Why are you still afraid of the cost? Many people will not reach out to a coach, or ask a friend for help because they think the cost is so great or that the piece that is missing, that has held them up for years, is not going to be found. Imagine that you spent three months without a car because you were trying to figure out how to fix something; then you find out it would have cost you $20 to pay someone for five minutes of work to fix it. In life many times the cost of a coaching session pays you back with an idea that helps you create 20 times its cost. Imagine if you paid $100 and it gave you the information to earn $2,000 in a matter of a day or so. That has happened with more of my clients than I could list in this short post.

In life many times new clients wish they had called six months before so they could have had the spare money to get the deal that was offered on the car or house they wanted. So with that I leave you with one last question: 2011 is almost over. What are you going to do differently in 2012 to change your life? It’s time to get the help to solve the puzzle. After all you may find yourself asking the question in awe: “How much do I owe you?” with a satisfied look on your face, and a feeling of joy to have a trouble lifted from you.

I’m Tim Gillette, the Rocker Life Coach. It’s time to live your dream, to love what you do and those you share life with. Get the help you need to make greatness out of your life and be a RockStar in your world.